VATICAN CITY, Nov. 24 (UPI) — The Vatican trial of five people charged in connection with the publication of classified documents on financial irregularities began Tuesday.
Those charged include two journalists, a priest, and two employees of the Vatican, whom the Vatican says took part in an illegal procurement of secret documents.
Journalists Emiliano Fittipaldi, author of “Avarice” and Gianluigi Nuzzi, author of “Merchants at the Temple,” used the information contained in the documents to allege in their books that the Vatican has mismanaged and misused money, including money that was earmarked for charities to refurbish the homes of church cardinals.
Spanish priest Monsignor Lucio Angel Vallejo Balda and public relations expert Francesca Chaouqui were arrested by the Vatican earlier this month, and along with Vatican official Nicola Maio are accused of leaking the secret documents to the two journalists.
The five are charged under a 2013 law hurried into enactment after the butler of former Pope Benedict XVI leaked damaging information about the Vatican’s internal politics. Nuzzi’s book includes a transcript of secret recordings in which Pope Francis can be heard furiously condemning the Vatican’s poor financial management practices.
The Vatican, unlike Italy, has no law protecting journalists from revealing the sources of their stories, and Nuzi and Fittipaldi are attending their trials voluntarily since the Vatican has no legal power to force them to be present. The unprecedented trial comes as a surprise to each of the defendants, and Nuzzi has said the heavy-handed Vatican crackdown is reminiscent of the inquisition, a Catholic persecution of heretics which ended in the 19th century.
“Maybe I’m naive but I believed they would investigate those I denounced for criminal activity, not the person that revealed the crimes,” said Fittipaldi, whose book was released this month.
Each of the defendants could receive eight-year prison sentences if convicted. This could present a problem, as the Vatican has only four holding cells and no prison.
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